Aftermath
by GlimerOfhope
Summary: A collection of oneshots and drabbles, post-manga.
1. stupidity

**Stupidity**

Disclaimer: I don't own it.

_Set after the end of the manga_.

She doesn't want to be like Kikyou, but every day she feels as if she's slipping a little closer, scrambling for footholds that break beneath her feet. She knows what she should be (what she used to be) but she can't seem to drag herself back onto that ledge and stay there.

The_y_'ve changed her, her oblivious friends, and she can't go back. The path has been cut out to her heels and the only way is forward.

She's already realised she's changed or maybe she was always like this and never realised till now. And now, after all that's happened, she's irreversibly bitter; unquestionably kikyou.

Her should-be soul mate was drifting away, out of her reach, for reasons she could only fathom to grasp.

It's stupid, she's stupid, and they all are stupid. _Stupidity _it is. Her place was home; and home was in her own era with her mother, brother…it reminds her of so many other things, so many other times, when she gave in to her emotions and all she could feel now was an aching remorse.

Then she saw him; her should-be brother in law exchanging words with his protégée. And she wondered, for the first time in years, would he survive?

And if he had, why didn't he warn her?

Before leaving the village, he glanced at her, and she couldn't help the glare she sent his way, full of accusations, if not hatred.


	2. Envy

**Envy**

Disclaimer : not mine !

She wanted to be in Sango's shoes right now. Kagome wanted a taste of this happiness, and it almost made her feel sick; looking at other people's children and having it prick her eyes as she watched, in trance; with…_envy?_

But she wasn't like _that_; she shook her head frantically as if willing those thoughts away.

Kagome breathes; unfounded envy tearing her up from inside, and then something else is ripping her, clawing shreds through her body.

She's been through that; she thought as she steeled herself. But she can't help but feel it acidic in her heart when he overheard him confess in silent, barely-there whispers that he still _sometimes_ wishes Kikyo back.

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AN/_I'm glad you're enjoying these little ficlets :) I hope you liked this one just as much, and I'd love to hear your thoughts on it._


	3. Recollection

**Recollection**

Disclaimer : not mine…so obvious !

His half brother only loved her because she looked like the _other one_ – or at least, that was what he thought at first. She was Kikyo, centuries in the future, Kikyo if she had worn t-shirts and jeans and let her curls cascade down her back in frenzy; Kikyo without all the bad bits, a recipe that tasted much better the second time round.

There was nothing about her that could even make her remotely intriguing. She was fragile as glass, sweet as melted chocolate, common as everything, and yet she had a celestial grace in her, a resounding sadness that wrongly added to her beauty.

She was Higurashi Kagome, not Kikyou, and he, Sesshomaru, could care less.

Then why, when she'd looked at him with angry, accusatory eyes, had he not ignored the hate lurking there. And what had she expected? Travelling alone developed him into a man bleeding arrogance and disdain. That was how he was when she had met him, and how she had always regarded him back then.

Yet, he still didn't understand why he still carries the burden of her hate five centuries later. And Sesshomaru didn't like confusion.

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_**A/N: **Thanks for all the reviews everyone! It means a lot :) Glad you're enjoying these little ficlets. Love to hear from you :)_


	4. pride

**Pride**

Disclaimer : again not mine.

He didn't even recognise her for a heartbeat, only absently watching tangles of black hair and the blur of a pale familiar face, until recognition cracked together in his head and he almost blinked.

He wasn't usually surprised but seeing her here, _now_, was the most intriguing thing that had happened to him in a good few years, maybe even centuries. He'd sporadically wondered what happened to her when she was gone, though he'd had little to do with her at the time – too busy with swords, power and acting out with is half brother – and now here she was, as if all that had occurred had never been.

She looked almost the same; just a bit older. But she gave off, all the same, that vibe of wrongness, of something hundreds of years past its time. She was just like him; he concluded.

And even though Inuyasha's long out of the picture by now – they had a good run of it, but in the end they were never for each other – she still won't accept him and his _golden eyes_ and _white hair_.

She won't say yes.

He doesn't know it yet; but she won't let him win. He doesn't deserve the satisfaction of seeing her break, perhaps it is pride, or perhaps she is still holding onto the notion that the past is the past; and there is no way in hell she's going to go through _the same pain_ again.

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A/N: Again thank you for your awsome responses. Love to hear your thoughts about that:=)


	5. Smile

**Smile**

Disclaimer: Inuyasha is not mine.

"What is he doing?" Sesshomaru inquired, pulling a blank, albeit to a disgusted face as he held up a photograph of Kagome and his half-brother for examination. The couple along with their friends in the photograph were beaming, even Inuyasha's usually brash demeanour broken for the sake of a joyful moment.

"What are you doing?" Kagome muttered, rolling her eyes at him.

"Inspecting," he replied naturally, not bothering to look at her. She appeared over his shoulder, looking at the picture. Her brow furrowed delicately, and she was forced to swallow some wave of emotion she couldn't quite name.

It was a sickeningly sweet moment in a remote time; though judging from the brisk way Kagome snatched the picture away, it was a moment that simply made her bitter in the present.

"He's smiling," she answered him curtly, plucking the picture away. "You should try it."

She turned her back to him, stuffing the insufferable photo out of sight; and missing in the process how his eyes darkened to a perceptible shade.

So she thought he didn't smile, did she?

There were many things that made him smile, though they were more often than not unpleasant for the recipient of said smile. Maybe his smiles weren't caused by sunshine, but they appeared, nevertheless, like rainbows.

There were times when he could be surrounded by something so utterly pleasant or even funny that it sometimes became difficult to keep that warmth from infecting him. But there was no point in allowing Kagome to get high hopes about touching some underlying soft spot of his, and promptly turning him into a pile of mush as she did to his brother in the past.

But it didn't mean he couldn't show her, occasionally that is.

She turned from stashing the photograph, spinning around to come face to face with Sesshomaru. He was a silent predator, a cougar slinking low in the underbrush towards something that never heard him coming, and yet, when he was there, he was undeniable.

Leaning in until she was forced to lean back to avoid contact, Sesshomaru held her gaze for a moment. Golden eyes flickered with odd lights, playfulness corrupting the usually amber pool, and for a moment, she was downright terrified.

Her heart hammered like crazy, her stormy eyes widened with fear and she recited prayers to God as she remembered now that a smile coming from _him_ had always been bad news.

Eyes never moving from hers, Sesshomaru allowed his lips to curve into a genuine smile. There was something warm and fuzzy about that smile; and it simply took her breath away leaving her speechless in its wake, unable to articulate a single word.

It was exactly the reaction he wanted, and the idea of it made her face burn hot, adding to her own misery.

Finally breaking his stoic stillness; he quirked one silver inquisitive brow.

"Hn," he said as he tilted his head at her, "I know how to smile."


	6. I can't

**I can't**

_Same disclaimer applies._

He never thought she'd mean everything to him. He played with her, pulling her strings and pressing her buttons, just to irritate his half brother, and just in the hope of getting a rise out of her and seeing if she was Kikyou inside as well as out. He was curious, but…

She wasn't, and he would have been disappointed and disgusted, except…

She was better.

There are things he wishes he could tell her. But he can't.

He sought her once again, this time she was watching dreamingly the sheen of a lake, waterfall spilling over the sharp edge of a ravine to crash foam-white and deafening just in front of her.

'God, it's beautiful' she whispers. And it is, greenery and spidery trees all around, with the mirror-gleam of the lake ahead and a haze of water flecking her complexion.

'Indeed,' he replies, and pushes her in.

She shrieks, and disappears under, hair loose and sopping around her face when she resurfaces coughing up water. She looks disgruntled and gives him pitiful glares. But he is nowhere to be seen.

Abruptly he's underwater and has a grip on her feet and is dragging her down so swiftly she swallows water.

She coughs out a stream of bubbles, grey eyes wide in the murky stillness at the bottom of the lake.

They just stare at each other for a charged heartbeat, underwater where time has suspended its run, where life can wait for a little while, just a little.

But Kagome's running out of air, and she points up towards the surface, assuming he'll just push her, push them, towards reality again, but he never does. Under the crushing weight of water with her hair and his hair drifting around them in long dark and white tendrils, he simply pulls her closer and shares air with her.

She never wants to come up and face life again.

They pull back, staring at each other. They know that it's time to go back up so she can return to her friends. It will be as if this never happened.

'I can't,' she says, hoping and yet not that he can read lips. Her words float towards the surface in broken little bubbles, and they followed their trails.

Life, above water, will go on as if nothing underneath ever happened.

a/n: This is the last instalment though I might take requests.


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